This week, as countries meet in Antalya, Turkey for the United Nations climate conference, one topic likely to dominate the conversation is artificial intelligence. The host has already called on countries to commit to ensuring that AI is designed, powered, and deployed in ways that support climate action. But so far, industries around the world aren't doing nearly enough to harness the technology to actually drive down the greenhouse-gas emissions heating up the planet, despite some very optimistic claims from AI companies.
In 2024, Open AI CEO Sam Altman declared that AI would unleash "astounding triumphs," including "fixing the climate." The year before, in a 2023 op-ed, the head of sustainability at Google and her coauthor wrote that AI could reduce global emissions 5% to 10% by 2030. A peer-reviewed study published last year, led by researchers at the London School of Economics' Grantham Research Institute and the firm Systemiq, estimated that AI could help cut global emissions by the equivalent of 3.2 to 5.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually by 2035.
However, projections like these are only as good as our willingness to test them against present-day reality. Companies across power, meat and dairy, and vehicles have announced plenty of initial efforts to incorporate AI. But an AI-assisted review of public information from significant market actors found that few are pursuing the specific emissions-reducing routes that informed the projections. In the power sector, AI-driven forecasting could increase renewable electricity reaching the grid by up to 20%, preventing an estimated 1.8 billion tons of emissions a year. Yet of the grid operators reviewed in China, the United States, and Europe, only one deployed a known meaningful, working AI program of this sort. In the meat and dairy sector, Not Co's joint venture with Kraft Heinz using its platform Giuseppe analyzes plant molecular data to replicate animal product attributes, but few other alternative-protein companies have such deeply integrated AI in product development.
Source: MIT Technology Review · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing